Randygill Top, Green Bell, Knoutberry and Knott
Walk date – 20th August 2025
Distance – 5 miles
Weather – Some sunny spells, mostly cloudy, chilly north easterly wind
Just a short walk today and not too far from home as we had to be back early enough to deliver my car to the garage in readiness for its MOT tomorrow. We drove over to Ravenstonedale and parked up on the Adamthwaite farm access road which goes across the moorland from the top of Ravenstonedale village to the farm where it comes to an end. One of the perks of walking in the Howgills is that parking doesn’t usually present much of a problem and things were no different today. There wasn’t a soul around when we arrived and parked off road just below the bridge across Gais Gill and we only saw about half a dozen people during the time we were out. Despite the forecast on various websites, we didn’t get wall to wall sunshine although they did correctly forecast the speed and chilliness of the north easterly wind. By ‘eck, it wasn’t half parky when the sun was eventually hidden by the cloud cover as we descended Green Bell, Knoutberry and Knott. We were walking straight into into the brisk and chilly north easterly and I was wishing I had remembered to pack my gloves!
Route
Off road parking on Adamthwaite farm access lane – Gais Gill – Spengill Head – Stockless – Randygill Top – Stockless – Green Bell – Knoutberry – Knott – Adamthwaite farm access lane
We began today’s walk by descending into Gais Gill via a narrow path over to the right of the above shot and following the gill until it turned south westward. At that point we would leave the gill and walk over to the main path below Knoutberry and Green Bell. The gill is quite wide and stony at this point and today only contained a trickle of water. The hill on the right of the photo is Knott, one of the lower Howgills.
Gill walking in the Howgills has the added ‘extra’ of having some very steep sides to negotiate when the gill narrows and forces its way down through them. From time to time it became impossible to walk beside the gill and every so often we had to climb a little higher in order to make any progress.
We came across this attractive little waterfall in the gill but in order to make any further progress we had no choice but to scale the almost vertical hill sides surrounding it. There was no alternative other than to scramble, using our hands and feet, up and over the shaded hillside on the right, slide carefully down the other side of it (on our fifth point of contact) and cross over to the sunny side of the gill beside the waterfall. J did not enjoy this part of the walk at all!
Safely on the other side beside the waterfall and on fairly level ground. All we have to do now is another short scramble to get above the waterfall and we’ll be on our way again. The gill had to be crossed a couple of times when the sides of it became too steep and where there was an inviting flat section on the opposite side but there were no more tricky/difficult places to grapple with. Nevertheless, progress along the gill was slow as we kept meeting patches of tall, rough grass and bracken, and we were using old sheep trods through it all when we could find them.
Eventually though we reached the point where the gill began to turn south west, Green Bell was in view and, with a couple of walkers already on the path we were planning to aim for, we were able to make our way straight across to it. If you zoom in and locate a black dot on the flat land below Green Bell you can see the walkers referred to. There were two of them but at the time of taking the shot one was in front of the other.
The two walkers had reached Spengill Head as we made our way up to it. We saw them again when we reached the same place and by that time they were making their way over to Randygill Top. We didn’t see them again after that.
Making our way up the path to Spengill Head.
During a sunny spell as we were making our way up I took a look back along the sunlit valley towards Knott. Behind Knott are the fells and moors along the sides of the Mallerstang valley.
A shot of Green Bell and Knoutberry from Spengill Head followed by …..
….. a shot of Knoutberry and Knott.
From Spengill Head but in the opposite direction is the deeply gullied eastern face of Yarlside, the hill just below it is Kensgriff.
We made our way up to the path between Green Bell and Randygill Top and decided we had enough time to make the walk over to Randygill Top so we took a left turn at the path junction and made our way over to it.
A view of Randygill Top above Stockless as we made our way over to the Stockless path.
On reaching the Stockless path we made our way over towards Randygill Top. On the way across is this view of what is known as Leathgill Bridge. Its not a bridge in the accepted sense of the word as it is a connecting col between the very steep sides of Randygill Top and Hooksey. Immediately behind Leathgill Bridge is West Fell and behind that is Simon’s Seat.
A longer view of the prevous shot.
We plod on towards the summit of Randygill Top with Yarlside just peeping up over on the left.
The view of Green Bell behind Stockless as we get closer to the summit of Randygill Top.
Nothing grand marks the summit of Randygill Top, just a pile of rocks but the views of the Howgills make up for it. Instantly recognisable is the gullied face of Yarlside then comes – L to R – Great Dummacks, Calders, Bram Rigg and finally the u-shaped curve of The Calf, the highest point of the Howgills standing at 2217 feet or 676 metres.
The skyline view to the south west, from L to R, is of The Calf, Bush Howe and Fell Head …..
….. back to Yarlside again for a close up …..
….. followed by a closer look at the u-shaped The Calf …..
….. and a closer look at the Bush Howe and Fell Head skyline …..
….. turning due west we have a view of Simon’s Seat across the middle foreground plus the added bonus of the Coniston Fells and the Crinkle Crags/Bowfell/Scafell Pike groupings facing each other across the U shaped gap on the distant and hazy skyline …..
….. turning to the northern side we see Hooksey in partial sunshine on the left and Green Bell in the shade on the right …..
….. and finally and in recognition of our home county we can see on the centre skyline Whernside (L) and Ingleborough (R) in distant Yorkshire.
We retrace our outward steps and begin the journey back down over Stockless towards Green Bell. We are now facing north east, exactly the same direction as the wind is coming from so its eyes and nose wiping time again.
Down off Stockless now and heading for the path leading up to the summit of Green Bell whose trig column has now come into view.
The view back to Randygill Top from Green Bell summit. The walker making his way over to Randygill Top has just been talking to …..
….. these two, one of whom was eating a banana and the other one tucking into a bag of crisps. We hung around for a few minutes waiting for them to depart but when it became obvious that they weren’t about to do so I decided to hell with waiting around in the cold wind and took a shot of the trig column and them and their belongings. If they don’t like the thought of themselves appearing in somebody’s smart phone photo album or on somebody’s website then they shouldn’t hang around trig columns, cairns or anything else that is to be found on a fell summit.
We began the descent of Green Bell, Knoutberry and Knott with the chilly north easterly wind blowing straight towards us which wasn’t at all helpful during our steep descent from Green Bell.
Towards the bottom of the Green Bell path is this old sheepfold which is gradually being encroached upon by several patches of tall green grasses, in a few years time it probably won’t be visible at all. This is a close up view …..
….. and here is the longer view of it that we had.
A look back at the steep descent from Green Bell where we noticed that the two young men who had been eating their snacks at the trig column were also making their descent. We didn’t see them again after this sighting.
The pile of stones marking the summit of Knoutberry which I took a quick shot of before making our way over to Knott. We are both feeling quite cold now and my hands are numb.
Dropping down to Knott with Gais Gill to the right of it.
A longer shot of Knott and Gais Gill but all that concerns us at the moment is dropping down to a lower height and getting some protection from the cold wind.
We are climbing up Knott now having just stopped in a little hollow below to have a drink of hot coffee and to put our wind-proofs on. I took a look back and noticed that our route today was in view so I took this shot of it – Gais Gill over on the left, Spengill Head at the top of the valley, then comes Randygill Top, Green Bell and Knoutberry. Its not often possible to view all of the route we have taken so its very satisfying when it happens.
I didn’t bother with a shot of the pile of stones marking the summit of Knott although it was just a little further back behind me in a clump of long and reedy grasses. If you want to know what it looks like and where to find it take a look at photo number 5 from our walk of 3rd August 2021. Below us are the limestone pavements below Wild Boar Fell which are known as the Stennerskeugh Clouds, see our walk of 21st March 2020 for more info on them.
Here we are back at the bridge crossing Gais Gill where our car is parked just out of shot on the right. The chap out walking his dog came by as we were packing our things away and had a quick word with J, but I was too busy putting my gear away to even notice him in my haste to get into the car and back into a warmer environment because I was quite cold by this time. Anyway, viewers will no doubt be relieved to know that we were back home in good time to get changed, have a cup of coffee and deliver the car to the garage. The garage rang this morning (Thursday) to say that the car had passed its MOT and that it was ready for collection so after doing the weekly grocery shop and before I started this walk report J drove me over to the garage where I picked it up and it is now sitting on the driveway and back where it belongs. Phew, that’s over and done with for the next twelve months. However the stress meter can’t be completely dialled back as the car insurance is also due soon and that certainly won’t be cheap as chips. There’s always something just over the horizon, isn’t there?